**3.2 Forming a family math learning community**

Based on the success of adding a family math component to the YM classroom intervention, in 2019, we received funding to create a family math learning community in Worcester, Massachusetts. Worcester is a unique and richly diverse city and holds the triple distinction of being the second largest city in New England, a leading Gateway City, and the leading refugee resettlement community, with a decades-long history of welcoming refugees from around the world. This project was one of two Family Math Roadmap Implementation Project Learning Community Grants funded for two years (2019–2021) by the Heising-Simons Foundation and the Overdeck Family Foundation (for more details see [83]). This family math learning community focused on scaling up the implementation of the YM classroom and family math program, adding culturally relevant resources, and promoting sustainability by coordinating across Head Start, the public library, a family partnership program, and the pre-service teacher program at the local community college to ultimately close the opportunity gap in early mathematics. In partnership with these community organizations, we aimed to align young children's learning experiences across the community and establish a "web of opportunity" by linking home, school, and the broader community, and promoting positive attitudes toward math. A key goal of the family math learning community has been to increase access and equity in early mathematics learning by putting families first and promoting the belief that math is for everyone.

Our approach to forming a cohesive family math community has been to codesign with educators and families the math games, resources, professional development, and supports that can be used in different contexts across the community—at home with different age siblings, at library story times, during family playgroups, and in preschool classrooms. A particular goal of the family math community work has also been to engage Emergent Multilingual Learners (EMLs) and to support children and families who have historically been denied access and equitable opportunities to engage with high-quality math experiences. While there is strong evidence that connecting home and school environments can reap great learning benefits for children and their families, there is still a question as to what models work for whom and under what circumstances [81] and whether such models can be scaled to broaden access to more families. In an effort to illuminate the practices and benefits of a communitywide approach to family math, we conducted an external evaluation of the YM family math learning community.

#### *3.2.1 External evaluation of family math learning community*

The external evaluation of this family math learning community found that the partnership among the community-based organizations promoted an increased understanding of the importance of early math for families, with families showing an increased interest in, and knowledge of, early math. Families also increased in how comfortable they felt helping their children with early math while feeling that they had also improved in their ability to come up with fun math activities to do with their children. The partnership also promoted an increased understanding of the importance of math for educators, with educators showing an increased interest in early math. In addition, educators were more comfortable engaging young children in early math activities in the classroom. In some cases, educators' beliefs about early math improved, for instance, educators grew in their understanding that everyone can learn math and that young children are curious about math ideas. Educators also felt more comfortable supporting family math; they increased their confidence to help parents understand children's age-appropriate math skills and were more confident answering families' questions about early math activities. In addition, educators reported that they were more confident about knowing the best ways to share math

information with families and were more confident about how to connect families to resources that support children's math development. Finally, educators were more confident about knowing the best practices and having the right tools for engaging families in early math.

Together with our community partners, we have bolstered support and awareness of the importance of early math, provided professional development to early childhood educators, and connected with families to share information, support, and materials that complement what their children's educators are learning in professional development sessions. We continue to sustain and expand this work with a current grant from Heising-Simons.

In the 2022–2023 school year, we expanded the mathematics content addressed in the program and tested the YM classroom and family math intervention in over 30 classrooms in three additional Head Start programs. Analyses for this study are underway.
